


reeling in my brain again

by peterandhispirate



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Domestic, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, vent fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 17:49:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17565158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peterandhispirate/pseuds/peterandhispirate
Summary: Josh can’t stop clicking his pen.





	reeling in my brain again

**Author's Note:**

> title from “mr. loverman” by ricky montgomery

He was being obnoxious. Josh knew that. He always knew. He knew, and knowing killed him, because he couldn’t help it. Being obnoxious, that is. After all the weird eating habits and late-night intrusive thoughts, it was a miracle Tyler hadn’t dumped his ass yet. Tyler could get annoyed over small things - stupid things, even - but he never seemed to get fed up with his boyfriend.

Josh was just waiting for his patience to run dry. Waiting for him to sigh and shake his head and say, “Josh, man, I’m sorry, but it’s too much.”

Josh was being too much. He knew that. But despite knowing, there went the pen, again and again and again and again until his thumb was a separate fucking entity, a detached machine working to its own insufferable rhythm. He couldn’t feel his wrist.

He couldn’t help it. He could never help it. He certainly couldn’t help the tears that were starting to well up and smudge the darkness of his eyes, hot and prickly and uncomfortable. Squeezing his eyelids shut just made the itching turn into burning.

His thumb was beginning to cramp, but there went the pen.

_Click_. _Click_. _Cl_ -

The fingers curling firm around his wrist were unexpected, but appreciated nonetheless. The pen was eased seamlessly from his grip and abandoned on the kitchen table, and Josh eyed it a few seconds longer before twisting around to blink at his boyfriend’s knife-sharp face. But there was softness in it, too, and Josh found himself momentarily bewitched by Tyler’s mouth. A mind-reader of sorts, Tyler brought Josh’s numb hand to his lips and blessed each knuckle with a kiss, each one more tender than the last.

“I, uh.” Josh cleared his throat. “Did I wake you?”

Tyler shook his head, winding their fingers together as if to tether Josh to the troposphere. “Just figured something was wrong.”

“I’m fine,” said Josh, whose eyes were too puffy and bloodshot to back that statement up.

“I think you need to take a break,” Tyler insisted, stealing a glance at the cesspool of paperwork strewn across the table. “And by ‘take a break’ I mean go the fuck to bed.”

Josh’s heart withered a little. “Are you mad?”

“Not mad, just impatient. I wanna cuddle and you’re taking, like, forever.”

“Sorry,” Josh said, practically blubbered it, and Tyler just smiled, squeezing his fingers.

“Don’t need’a apologize.”

“I just feel like... I know it’s dumb, but- shit.” Using his free hand to rub the bridge of his nose, Josh let his chest deflate before asking, “D’you ever get sick of me?”

A five-second window of silence that left Josh breathless. And then, “You’re right. That is pretty dumb.”

Unconvinced by the typical bluntness, Josh found himself scrambling to justify his paranoia - “I just have all these weird tics, and the last thing I’d wanna do is annoy you.”

“You’re never gonna annoy me, Josh,” Tyler said, eyebrows knitting together. “You’re my boyfriend.”

“Boyfriends can annoy each other,” Josh pointed out, and Tyler couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

“Okay, sure, but I’d never be pissed at you over something you can’t control. That would make me an asshole, and I’m only an asshole to people who aren’t you. And, like, my mom.”

Josh blinked, chewing his lip. Thoughtful. “I guess you’re right.”

But apparently Tyler wanted to make sure he got the message, because he drilled Josh’s eyes with his own and said, “As your boyfriend, it’s my job to make you feel loved and supported, no matter how many times you click a pen. Got it?”

“Yeah.” Josh’s mouth twitched. “Got it.”

“Okay, good. Let’s go to bed. I’m fucking exhausted.”

They slept with Tyler twisted around Josh like some kind of lovesick skeleton, all limbs and messy hair and arms wrapped snug around Josh’s middle as if to say _I’ve_ _got_ _you_.

He couldn’t help it.


End file.
